


i don't need the weight of words to find me

by SafelyCapricious



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Mind Control, Non-Sexual Slavery, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 07:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5366867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma's life hangs on the end of a pendant. A pendant she doesn't have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i don't need the weight of words to find me

**Author's Note:**

> This is for week five of the WardSimmonsdays summer challenge, Supernatural. 
> 
> Previously posted on Tumblr.

She feels the string tight around her lungs jerk when He dies – she’s chatting with Fitz about a potential time altering drug, the rest of the team doing their own activities in the common area when He dies.

She stops speaking and gasps, leaning forward to catch herself now that she can breathe.

It will only last until His Heir finds her, she knows.

As her body protests the rush of oxygen, too much – she wishes they were on the ground – she gasps for breath, Fitz fluttering around her and May giving orders she cannot hear – she wishes they were on the ground so that she could find the amulet before anyone else does.

It doesn’t matter that He never knew what she was or where she was – never had an order or a command for her, never even met her.

She never knew who He was either – which makes her desire to find the amulet extremely unlikely to succeed. If He had seen her He would’ve known and so she’d been glad for the distance but –

Oxygen is rattling through her chest, her lungs still trying to take in air at the accelerated rate they had to for so long, only now it’s too much too much too much –

When her eyes roll back in her head she can see the worried faces of her team around her before the world goes dark.

Smell comes back first – the harsh burn of ethanol in her nose, then hearing. She can hear Fitz muttering to himself and a soothing whirr of machinery nearby. The blanket on her feels heavy, like it’s anchoring her, and she can tell by the weight that it’s the quilt from the end of her bed before she even opens her eyes. The light is bright and it burns, she has to blink away tears for a moment before shapes start to resolve and she can see that Fitz is in the corner, no one else around.

He doesn’t notice that her eyes are open, so she closes them.

There’s something she has to check and –

She can’t help but let out a sob, jarring in the quiet of the medical bay, when she feels the fist at her throat, squeezing.

It doesn’t let up.

She knows she’ll get used to it – she has before and she doesn’t have a choice – but it’s still startling in its intensity.

It’s been a long time since she’s been gripped with such force. Not the one who had just died, or the one before, or the one before that had even known what they’d held.

The one before that had. Had worn the amulet around Her throat at all times, reaching up to grip it in Her fist whenever She needed Jemma to listen. This isn’t as bad as that, she doesn’t think, though her memory could be wrong as to how bad it was, making it worse than it really was at the time.

It had been years since a new hand had grabbed her. The one who had died had found her when He’d been just a boy. Inherited from someone – the one who had been before hadn’t died, there had been no loosening, just a handing off. That had been nearly eighty-seven years ago, now.

But she knows what it feels like, the new grasp and how it changes depending on who it is.

Whoever They are, They are full of rage and pain and hate and are holding tight.

She doesn’t know if it is a habit or desperation or if they know.

There is something else different too – and she has to bat at Fitz who is trying to check her pupils for dilatation as she sorts out what she can feel.

It feels like there was someone else there too now – not holding her and not touching her but touching her? She isn’t sure what it means.

She is sure that her flailing had brought Ward into the medical bay, called to help Fitz, and he is holding her down now with firm hands as Fitz injects her with something.

Darkness swells and she slips away again.

Waking up the next time isn’t difficult – she knows what to expect and the fist doesn’t steal the breath from her now. Explaining, however, is difficult and she mostly just doesn’t. Demands to know what tests they’ve run and wants to get samples herself and pretends she doesn’t know exactly what’s happened.

Everyone knows she can’t lie well – that’s the truth – and though Ward seems to be watching her carefully she thinks it’s just his way of being worried, everyone else seems to accept that she doesn’t know why she had a fit.

They are landed at a base, The Bookstore, while she does her tests.

She can feel some tugs at her sternum telling her They are moving, but she doesn’t suspect they might be able to find her until, one day He’s there.

He’s got a man at His side and Ward had immediately snapped to attention when He walked in.

Her vision is tunneling and so she misses what Coulson says, but she sees him clap Him on the shoulder before waving him forward.

And then He’s there, holding out His hand for her to shake and she has to.

His grip is firm and His smile smug as he says, “Simmons, I’ve heard a lot about you. But Ward,” He looks over her shoulder and she can feel a tense line of heat where Ward stands, “You didn’t tell me she was so pretty.”

She barely hears Ward say, “I seem to recall your taste running a bit more towards likely to kill you, Sir,” as she stares at His chest.

There is her amulet, rose quartz, ebony and silver, hanging on a thin cord and right beside it is another. It’s a garnet or a ruby, ivory and silver, looking eerily similar to her own.

The fist at her throat is tight and she wants to grab them.

Coulson escorts Garrett away and she turns, slowly, to meet Ward’s eyes.

There’s darkness there, and sorrow.

His hand on her arm steadies her and she takes her first breath since He came in, and lets it out slowly, sharing a brief look with him that speaks of years of shared experiences they had never known, before she turns back to hear whatever Skye is saying to Fitz across the table.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find my writing tumblr [here](http://capriciouswrites.tumblr.com/). <3 Prompts are always welcome! Come say hi!


End file.
